Native American Trust Case

The Justice Department today defended in a Washington federal appeals court the historic $3.4 billion settlement to resolve claims that the government mismanaged
Native American trust accounts for decades.

The settlement in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which ended more than a twelve years of hostile litigation, received congressional approval in
December 2010.

The deal compensates potentially 500,000 individual Indian trust account holders. The federal government collected money from leases for farming, timber sales, mining
and other activities. Lead plaintiff Elouise Cobell, who died in October, filed suit to obtain an historical accounting of the trust program.

Critics of the deal contend the settlement will overcompensate some class members while not paying enough to others. The class attorneys, including a team from
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, contend the overwhelming majority of potential class members support the settlement. A trial judge in Washington called the settlement fair and
reasonable.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit took up the settlement's fairness today at 45-minute hearing. The court examined, among other
things, the cost and potential impossibility of an historic accounting. The panel did not immediately rule.

The Justice Department’s Thomas Bondy in court called the settlement rational and sensible.

"Its terms are fair to the members of the plaintiffs’ class," Bondy said. "In the government’s view, this settlement represents a significant and welcome step forward
in terms of Indian trust reform."

Bondy acknowledged that the settlement contains what he called an element of "rough justice." Still, he argued the deal is not random and arbitrary. "This is more than
a fair settlement," he said. "It’s a generous settlement."

Theodore Frank of the Center for Class Act Fairness, representing a class member who is opposed to the settlement, said the government and counsel for the plaintiffs
took "procedural shortcuts" to reach the deal. He rejected the notion that there are sufficient similarity among class members to allow the group to be certified.

Frank argued today that inter-class conflicts—among other things, the potential for arbitrary monetary awards—undermines the fairness of the settlement. The "fatal
flaw" in the settlement, Frank declared, is that not every class member is fairly compensated by a $1,000 payment.

"How do we know that at this point in the litigation?" Judge David Tatel asked.

Frank pointed to Cobell’s testimony before Congress, in which she talked about claims worth millions of dollars. Frank said his client, Kimberly Craven, has a variety
of trust interests whose value remains undetermined.

"You can’t know whether it’s worth $1,000 until you have the actual accounting," Frank said at the hearing today.

Tatel questioned whether any examination of the trust accounts will come close to providing answers to Frank’s question. Members of Congress have expressed a
disinclination to fund an historical accounting.

A panel in the D.C. Circuit ruled earlier in the case that an accounting of "low-hanging fruit" is possible. The panel judges seemed puzzled at defining "low-hanging
fruit" and whether such a review would be beneficial anyway.

Indeed, Tatel and Judge Judith Rogers explored the extent to which an historical accounting is impossible. Rogers noted that the plaintiffs rejected a statistical
modeling program to develop an historical accounting.

The size and importance of the settlement is inconsequential, Tatel said, if there is evidence that class members are being overcompensated or undercompensated. "It
would be unfair," the judge said.

"This court, more than anyone else, knows how long it’s taken to get here," Tatel said. "We got the point."

Kilpatrick partner Adam Charnes, based in the firm’s Winston-Salem office, argued today for the class members.

Earlier rulings in the D.C. Circuit, Charnes said, have made it "crystal clear" that there will be no "meaningful" historical accounting. Historical account class
members are giving up their right to a full review of trust money in exchange for $1,000.

At the end of the hearing, Tatel asked Frank whether the case can be settled without an historical accounting. The government, Tatel said, wouldn’t likely agree to a
deal where individual plaintiffs can opt out of any settlement in order to seek an historical accounting.

Frank argued that individual Native Americans who want to pursue their own accounting claims can file suit for monetary damages in the U.S. Court of Federal
Claims.read more

COMMENT:The matter of settling for the paltry sum of $3.4 Billion is what concerns me.The government wants these claims by Indians to go away
yesterday.

Other matters that concern me is signing away the right to future claims which may arise for a one time $1,000 payment. NOTE this pay out of $1,000 amounts to
$500,000,000.00. One-fourth of the amount of the settlement.

I believe this settlement should be void and that the government should be made to account for the money and resources they have held in trust for Native America for
over a century. When they do the sum of $4 Billion is nothing.

Consider, in the government's eyes paying the Great Sioux Nation $17 Million for the illegal taking of the Black Hills, and adding simple interest to total $105
Million was a fair and just settlement. NOW we know that $70 Billion in gold has been extracted from the Black Hills and that it is the second largest gold strike in the history of the
U.S.A.

The settlement before us today will make the Black Hills settlement pale in comparison. BELIEVE me, if they are offering $4 Billion to Indian Country, and refuse to
fund or do an accounting, there is more at stake than meets the eye. The U.S.A. does NOT generously deal with Indians or tribes.

WE AS A PEOPLE, should reject the entire settlement and demand an accounting from Congress and the U.S.A. The U.S.A. has been subsidized by Native America since it
formed as a union and still is to this day.

If President Obama means what he says when he wants Native America to be welcomed into the national economy, we do not need a handout nor do we want or expect a
handout to participate in the economy.

VERY SIMPLY PUT, pay NATIVE AMERICA what you rightfully owe. Starting with this settlement, account for all that was taken and stolen from Native America for the past
century, add the simple interest and then let us meet across a table with an accurate figure of the theft from Native America in question in this instance.

COMMENT: As I follow this appeal of the settlement, I am convinced more and more Ms. Craven is holding the disbursement process hostage in hopes of
getting a bigger piece of the pie. Ms. Craven's is not a novice to the workings or our government and is not in the position to claim she did not know how to "opt out" of the settlement. She had
plenty of time, and knowledge, to pursue her individual issues via the courts. But she did not. I believe she is holding the monies hostage in an effort to get a nuisance settlement to gain more
monies from the rest of us trustees.

COMMENT: Let's face it, Craven has a political agenda, probably funded by the Republican party. She is not concerned with justice but in doing the
will of her masters. Craven has been against the lawsuit from the very beginning. If she loses this appeal, look for her to obstruct it even further, by appealing all the way to the Supreme
Court.

COMMENT: I would like to know like many others that are waiting for the "settlement" monies, while these appeals are going on, we sure hope our monies
are going to be collecting "interest" while we are forced to wait until the appeals are completed - what date or year will that be? I feel bad for the elders who might not be alive by
then

Every nation has a creation myth, or origin myth, which is the story people are taught of how the nation came into being. Ours says the United States began with
Columbus's so-called "discovery" of America, continued with settlement by brave Pilgrims, won its independence from England with the American Revolution, and then expanded westward until it became
the enormous, rich country you see today.

That is the origin myth. It omits three key facts about the birth and growth of the United States as a nation. Those facts demonstrate that White Supremacy is
fundamental to the existence of this country.Read

On the dayBennie Coleman lost his house, the day armed U.S. marshals came to his door and ordered him off the property, he slumped in a folding chair across the street and watched the vestiges of his 76 years hauled to
the curb...because he didn’t pay a $134 property tax
bill.

60 Minutes' Steve Kroft Talks To Carl HiaasenIn a little less than a
century, the state of Florida has been transformed from a largely uninhabited swamp to the fourth-largest state in the union. And no one has written about that transformation more successfully than
Carl Hiaasen.

Carl Hiaasen on Florida:

"The Sunshine State is a paradise of scandals teeming with drifters, deadbeats, and misfits drawn here by some dark primordial
calling like demented trout. And you'd be surprised how many of them decide to run for public office."

In 1902, 140,000 miners went on strike, wanting higher pay, shorter work hours, and better housing.....Roosevelt...use[d] the military to run the mines in the "public
interest". The mining companies...accepted the demands of the UMW...more﻿﻿

Presidential Library and Museum

Pro labor: Labor is prior to, and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first
existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much higher consideration.Abraham
Lincoln pro labor quote﻿

Todayeconomic slaveryhas many people indebt chains. Economic or debt slavery ismore efficientfor its masters than the slavery of the Old South. Debt slaves must
feed, house and clothe themselves. Thedebt slave masters, thebanks,credit card companies, and even student loan providers, all rely upon the courts and justice system for enforcement of debt. When economic slaves can’t pay back their debt, they are told to get a second job. Or a third job.

Meanwhile, when thewell-connected mastersof economic slaves get in a financial bind, and
bring our economy to the brink of collapse, they call on politicians in Washington, DC for bailouts.Bankers don’t get second
or third jobs, they get million-dollar bonuses.

Theeconomic slave mastershave access to the best lawyers, sympathetic judges, and sheriff’s
deputies ready to haul the debt slave to court, or throw him and his family out of their
home and into the street. Does anyone see a problem with thisscenario? Where is the John Brown for today’sdebt slaves?﻿

The State Department's top spokesman resigned Sunday, three days after criticizing the Pentagon for its treatment of [Manning]...P.J. Crowley, the assistant secretary of State for public affairs, told a group at [MIT]...that the Pentagon's treatment of Pfc. Bradley Manning was "ridiculous and stupid and
counterproductive." His comments were made public by a blogger who attended the session.More here, and Politico, andThe Washington
Post

FORTY years ago today, The New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers, a seminal moment not only for freedom of the press but also for the role of
whistle-blowers — like Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the papers to expose the mishandling of the war in Vietnam — in defending our democracy.Read more﻿﻿

Senior ranking US military leaders have so distorted the truth when communicating with the US Congress and American people in regards to conditions on the ground in
Afghanistan that the truth has become unrecognizable.Read
more﻿

"I really don't like the term 'PTSD,’” Department of Veterans Affairs psychiatrist Dr. Jonathan Shay told PBS' "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly" in 2010. "He says the diagnostic
definition of "post-traumatic stress disorder" is a fine description of certain instinctual survival skills that persist into everyday life after a person has been in mortal danger — but the
definition doesn't address the entirety of a person's injury after the trauma of war. "I view the persistence into civilian life after battle," he says, "... as the simple or primary
injury." Dr. Shay on YouTube

Dr. Shay has his own name for the thing the clinical definition of PTSD leaves out. He calls it "moral injury" — and the term is catching on with both the VA and the
Department of Defense.

Moral injury, Dr. Shay says, can happen when "there is a betrayal of what's right by someone who holds legitimate authority in a high-stakes situation."read more

The Marine Corps, the most male of the armed services, is taking its first steps toward integrating women into war-fighting units, starting with its infantry officer
school at Quantico, Va., and ground combat battalions that had once been closed to women.

Stars and Stripes exists to provide independent news and information to the U.S. military community, comprised
of active-duty, DoD civilians, contractors, and their families. Unique among the many Department of Defense authorized news outlets, only Stars and Stripes is guaranteed First Amendment privileges
that are subject to Congressional oversight.﻿ Go to the website

Our motto: "FIGHTING FOR THE TRUTH. . .EXPOSING THE CORRUPT" is our battle cry! We go after, not only pompous brasshats and as COL. David Hackworth so ably put it -
the "perfumed princes" like Gen. Wesley Clark - but Gestapo-like MP's, CID, NIS, OIS and other alphabet agency "bully boys" who ignore the Constitution of the United States and the right to Due
Process.﻿

Major Heather Penney recounts the drama in the skies after District of Columbia Air National Guard pilots scrambled to intercept incoming hostile planes. She
describes why F-16’s initially took off from Andrews Air Force Base unarmed – and what she was prepared to do to bring down a plane piloted by terrorists. And she recounts how later that day she
helped escort President Bush and Air Force One back to Andrews Air Force Base.﻿ C-Span
Interview

Information on this website is a free public service. While the information on this site deals with legal issues, it does not constitute
legal advice. If you have specific questions related to information available on this site, you are encouraged to consult an attorney who can investigate the particular circumstances of your
situation.

Due to the rapidly changing nature of the law and our reliance on information provided by outside sources, this website does not warranty or guarantee the accuracy or
availability of the content on this site or on other sites to which we link.

In no event will this website be held liable to any party for any damages arising in any way out of the availability, use, reliance on or inability to use this website
or any information provided by or through this website, or for any claim attributable to errors, omissions or other inaccuracies in, or destructive properties of any information provided by or
through, this website.

Neil J. Gillespie:
1. Does not give legal advice.2. Not a lawyer.3. Not an attorney.4. Not licensed to practice law.5. Did not go to law school.

______________________

Seven Year Anniversary - YouSue.org to NoSue.org

Seven years ago I started the Justice Network with the domain name YouSue.org. This name was chosen in the spirit of YouTube, the video-sharing website that
empowered ordinary people to produce and share video.

Through this website I have met folks from all over the country. Some of their stories are profiled here. Many have reached the conclusion that America’s justice system is broken.

The official Justice Network Internet address is now NoSue.org. This reflects the sad truth that for most Americans the justice system is broken, just a parody of justice. Reform American courts or
avoid them. Your life, health and wealth is at risk. But don’t just take my word, listen to the experts on this site.

The stories, images, and videos on this website are in the public
domain, or featured here under the fair use doctrine if copyrighted. I claim no credit for images posted on this site unless noted. If there is an image on this site that belongs to you and do not wish for it appear, E-mail with a link to the image and it will be removed.